Tybalt and Juliet Ch. 04

As I'm sure you can imagine, A level physicists with their first exam less than ten days away, are not the most exciting group individuals, but none-the-less it was an enjoyable hour-and-a-half.

I sat down next to James with my beer.

"What are you planning to do next week for Study Leave?" he asked.

"I was going to work at home in the mornings and then go to the town library after lunch," I said. (This was a lie, I'd be at Amy's house in the mornings.) "What about you?"

"I might do the same," he said. "Mum's not very happy with me spending so much time with Becky," he sighed. "She thinks she's distracting me."

"Is she right?" I asked.

"Yeah, probably," he admitted. "She came round quite a lot over Easter and I went over to hers a fair bit and well," he looked slightly embarrassed, "I'm sure you can imagine."

I nodded. No fear of Amy and me getting carried away.

"Can we buddy up again?" he asked. "Like we did back in February, working in the library in town? It's the afternoons really," he added candidly. "We start fooling around after lunch and then..." his voice trailed off.

"OK," I said. "Let's meet there at two o'clock every day next week and if either one of us is late, we have to buy the other a cup of tea at four. How about that?"

James rolled his eyes. "How did I know you'd want a financial penalty clause?" he said.

We finished our drinks and Lauren messaged to say she was ready to pick me up. I bade farewell to James and the other eight students, then picked up my coat and school bag. As I left I looked back at the group. Derek and Libby were locked deep in conversation with one another, oblivious to everyone around them.

'Maybe Lauren was right,' I thought.

-

To my surprise Amy's mum, Jenny, was not only happy for me to spend a fair amount of time with her daughter during the exam period, in fact she positively encouraged me to do so. I think she hoped to revive the revision schedule that Amy and I had developed over the Easter Holidays, but since Rob and the twins wouldn't be around, she did impose a few additional conditions, (including that I wasn't allowed upstairs).

I'd been together with Amy for about a month by the time Study Leave started and, whether it was because she and Rob had got to know me in that time, or that she'd been reassured by James' mum's assessment, Jenny had warmed to me and had ostensibly begun to view me as a positive influence on her daughter.

In fact, she needn't have worried at all, as the two of us hadn't indulged in any sort of sexual activity since the Easter Holidays. For the first two weeks of the Summer Term Amy and I were not on our own for long enough to initiate anything then, once Study Leave had begun, the stress of our approaching exams was remarkably effective in suppressing our libidos. Of course, there was some kissing and cuddling, but removing clothing was out of bounds. I think we both realised that if we were to start undressing each other, then our self-discipline would be irretrievably lost. The unstated threat that her mother might make another 'unplanned' trip home from work to pick up 'forgotten' papers, also hung over us.

Spending most weekday mornings with Amy required coordination with Lauren. I'd been expecting her to want to stay at home at the farm, unless she had an exam, but instead she insisted on driving me to Amy's house, before taking the car on elsewhere. She was always a little cagey as to what she was getting up to each day, sometimes she had an exam, but other times when I tried to question her she'd say she was revising 'with friends' and then abruptly changed the conversation back to Amy and me.

After lunch with Amy, I'd walk to the town library to meet James, where the two of us would work for a couple of hours, before a half-hour tea break at the café round the corner. It did feel a little strange for the two of us to be together without Danny, but it enabled us to focus on Maths and Physics, which were the two subjects we were least confident in.

As the exams approached, I noticed a change in Amy. I could tell that she was getting nervous. She became a lot quieter, less likely to initiate conversation with me and the teasing banter which we'd started to develop over the Easter Holidays faded a little. But once or twice a day, she'd talk at length, almost non-stop about some trivial non-academic matter, as if making up for her reticence.

To be honest, it was a bit of a challenge for me to work out exactly how best to support her over the first half of the term. Asking her about her revision or exams was impossible, partly because I was a sciences student and her subjects were arts and humanities, but also because she really didn't want to talk about them. On the days when neither she nor I had a morning exam, I'd spend three or four hours at her house, working alongside her in the dining room and my presence seemed both to reassure and motivate her.

In the afternoons, I'd be in the town library with James and others and this seemed to give both Amy and I sufficient space to prevent our relationship from becoming claustrophobic. We'd speak on the phone every evening around nine and I'd spend one day each weekend with her, most often down at the farm, to give us both a change of scenery and some fresh air.

It's easy to look back now and project an image of youthful confidence onto my eighteen-year-old self, but I think I was nervous too. I had seven exams in the ten weekdays before the Half Term holiday at the end of May, but the hardest ones would all be in early June. There was a nasty Pure Maths paper right at the start, but then there was a block of Biology and Chemistry, which were my strongest suits. The papers themselves were neither easy nor difficult, which I took as a sign that I was neither overconfident nor underprepared. Nevertheless, as the Half Term holiday approached, I was ready for a break.

-

I'd booked tickets for the two of us to see an evening concert in London on the Friday before the Half Term holiday, as neither Amy nor I had exams that day. I'd been a little worried that Amy's mum would prevent us from going, but around the same time it transpired that she'd managed to secure a late deal for the same weekend for her, Rob and the twins at an outdoor holiday activity centre in East Anglia, a few hours' drive away. She'd offered Amy to chance to go along too, and even to bring me (the chalet could sleep up to six apparently), but her daughter had declined and was allowed to spend the weekend alone with me instead!

And so, on the Friday morning before the Half Term holiday formally began, Lauren dropped me off at the end of the driveway (she'd be going into school that afternoon for a geography exam). It wasn't a huge surprise that Amy's mum answered the door.

"Come in Jake," she said, giving a quick smile as she glanced at the bunch of flowers in my hand. "Let me help you with your bags. Amy's in the kitchen."

She reached down and picked up the holdall with my sleeping bag and air mattress and placed it beside the front door. I entered, dropping my overnight night back next to the coat stand and walked down the hallway to the kitchen.

Amy was slicing tomatoes on a chopping board for our picnic, but as soon as I entered, she set down the knife and flung her arms around me. She kissed me lightly on the lips and I presented my bouquet.

"Oh Jake," she said. "They're beautiful! I love sunflowers." She took them from me and placed them on the working surface, unwrapping them from the cellophane.

Amy's mum hovered behind me, not quite sure how best to enter the conversation. "Would you like a cup of tea Jake?" she asked.

"Oh yes please," I replied. "I never refuse a cup of tea!"

She walked over to the kettle, switching it on and then took out a glass vase for her daughter.

"How are your exams going Jake?" she asked.

"I think they're going OK," I replied. "But most of the difficult ones are after Half Term. The hard Maths one was fine though."

"Were you worried about it?" Amy's mum asked, "the Maths?"

"It's my weakest subject," I replied, "but I did work on it a lot, so it should be all right." Gosh, that sounded a bit cocky, I thought to myself.

"Look Mum!" Amy cried in delight holding up the vase with my flowers. "Aren't they stunning!"

"Yes, beautiful," her mum agreed, carrying two steaming mugs of tea over to the kitchen table. "Sit down Jake."

Amy and I sat opposite each other at one end of the table, her mum sitting down between us.

"Listen," Amy's mum said. "I wanted to talk to you both together."

I swallowed, suddenly feeling nervous.

"As you know," she said, "Rob, the boys and I are off to East Anglia for the weekend."

Amy and I nodded.

"We will be back on Monday after lunch." She looked at me. "Amy tells me that she has invited you to stay for a couple of nights."

I nodded again.

"Now I'm happy for you to stay Jake, but there are some rules that I want you both to abide by." She looked at Amy before continuing, "Firstly Jake sleeps downstairs."

"Mum," Amy protested, "you're embarrassing me!"

"Jake sleeps downstairs in the sitting room," Amy's mum reiterated. "Secondly, if the two of you go anywhere in Jake's car, you are not to drink any alcohol whatsoever. Thirdly, once we are back, revision starts again. Is that understood."

I nodded vigorously. "Yes, of course."

"Mum," Amy protested again, "you know Jake wouldn't put me in danger or try to lead me astray!"

"I'm more worried about you distracting Jake than the other way round," her mum replied wryly. "Just don't get carried away, you still have exams ahead."

-

We ate our picnic lunch, later that day, in Hyde Park in the middle of London and afterwards walked hand-in-hand up the Mall towards Trafalgar Square, before continuing on to Covent Garden. Amy and I had been together for a little over a month and this really was the first time that we'd held hands in a public place. We'd gone to a lot of effort to keep our relationship private and it felt liberating to be able to walk through the city as a couple, with no one giving us a second glance. I had a strange sense of pride that I was able to show to the world, if not my schoolmates, that Amy was my girlfriend.

Throughout the day, Amy seemed gripped by a child-like excitement. Although she'd been to the capital several times before, it was always with the school or with her step-brothers in tow, which meant using trains and the tube to get around. It seemed a genuine revelation to her that many of the major city landmarks were in fact well with walking distance of each other. Her phone was out constantly to take photos of almost everything we encountered. That was one big difference between us, I really wasn't a photos guy at all. I couldn't really understand why some of my friends insisted on chronicling every moment of their mundane lives on social media. Surely it was better to focus on having a good time and to keep the resulting happy memories, rather than stopping every few seconds to take an instantly forgettable picture?

-

Amy leaned against me as the train gently rocked us home.

"I've had such a lovely day," she said. "I really like spending time with you. It's been so nice not to have thought about exams at all."

"Me too," I replied. "It's like we've run away from everything today."

"Had you been to London on your own before?" she asked.

"Not entirely on my own," I replied, "but as a two or three with Danny, James and Stijn a few times, yes."

My phone buzzed, it was a message from Lauren.

'I've dropped the car for you at Amy's,' she'd written. 'I've posted the keys through the letterbox.'

I was surprised. Lauren had wanted to take the car back to the farm earlier in the evening and then she'd said she'd drive it to Amy's the next day. But if the car was now in town, how was she going to get home? I shrugged. Maybe she was staying with one of her friends.

'Thanks,' I texted back. 'When do you need it on Saturday?'

Lauren's reply came almost instantly. 'Change of plan,' she wrote. 'I don't need it again until next week.'

"That's good," I said to Amy. "Lauren's dropped the car off already, so we can make an early start tomorrow."

Amy turned her head and eyed me with suspicion. "How early is early?" she asked. "I know what you're like, Jake - we'll be up at crack of dawn."

"Riding's always best first thing in the morning," I said. "It's cooler for the horses, especially with weather like we had today. Let's try to get to the Stables at nine."

"But we're supposed to be on holiday," she protested.

"Sounds like a lie-in to me," I teased.

-

I was looking forward to going for a hack on the Saturday morning. By all accounts Amy had made pretty good progress in her riding lessons, and the Half Term holiday seemed to be a good opportunity to get her out into the open countryside, to give her confidence a boost if nothing else.

I'd agreed with Jackie, the owner of the Stables, that Amy could use the same horse that she'd been riding for her lessons and I'd ride the larger of the two horses that my family owned. Of course, that meant effectively revealing to Jackie that Amy was my girlfriend, adding her to the small list of people 'in the know', not that I was worried about her telling anyone.

Although she'd made a bit of a fuss about being anxious at leaving the relative security of the Stables and striking out into the countryside, it was clear that Amy was naturally comfortable in the saddle. I let her set the pace and, when there were no other animals around, we managed a rising trot across the farm fields. We took the bridle paths at a slow walking pace, crossing to the other side of the valley and climbing the hills under thick tree cover.

We tied the horses to a tree and ate lunch sitting on the grassy bank overlooking the millpond, watching as a mother duck led her brood across the calm water.

Flushed with the success of her first cross-country horse ride and our adventures in London the previous day, Amy was happier than I'd ever seen her before. For my part, I was happy simply to see her happy, even managing to force a smile for the four thousandth photo. Being able to observe her in her tight jodhpurs all day, especially as she bent over the open cool-bag to retrieve food or drink, was simply a bonus!

-

Having returned the horses to the Stables, we wandered back across the fields to the millpond again. Amy insisted on rowing us as I sat in the stern of our little boat. It wasn't strictly necessary for me to take my top off, but I was hoping that the sight of me bare chested (for the first time in five weeks), might titillate her for what I hoped might come that evening. I'd been a little disappointed the previous night, when I'd been dispatched to sleep on the air mattress in the sitting room with a mere kiss, and had spent the remainder of my time awake, kicking myself for insisting on an early start for horse riding.

I chained the boat to the jetty again and we stepped back onto dry land, before returning the oars and seat cushions to the Fishermen's Hut. Then, with my shirt slung over my shoulder, I took Amy's hand in mine and we climbed back up to the top of the bank to head back to the farmhouse.

"I've had such an amazing day," she said, looking up at me, a big smile across her face.

"Me too," I said.

"And I'm really looking forward to tonight!" she added. I noticed her looking across at my chest, before her eyes trailed down to my crotch.

"Oh" I said innocently, "and why's that?"

"Because, we're going to go out for a lovely meal and then I'm going to take you home and rip all your clothes off," she said wantonly.

I arched my eyebrow. "And after that?"

"You'll just have to wait and see!"

We were nearing the farmyard now. Most of our barns were modern metal constructions, including the lambing sheds, but over to our left and a little apart from the others was the Black Barn, the oldest building on the farm. I had an idea.

"D'you want to come and see the barn owls?" I asked.

"You have barn owls?" she replied.

"Yes, they live in the Black Barn over there," I said. "They'll be asleep, but we can take a quick peek."

The barn was old and too small by modern standards to be used much for the day-to-day running of the farm; we generally used it as an overflow store for straw bales and sacks of animal feed and fertilizer. It was a good place for the barn owls to live as they were rarely disturbed.

The door to the barn creaked as I pushed it open.

'Needs a bit of oil on the hinges,' I thought to myself.

"The owls are up there," I whispered to Amy pointing above my head, "but we need to go to the other end to see them properly."

The barn was pretty full and there was a large wall of straw bales in the centre, blocking our path.

"We need to climb on top of those," I said, and gave Amy my hand to help her up.

We reached the top, three or four metres above ground level and looked across to where the two owls were huddled together, asleep in the eaves.

"Wow, they look so cute!" Amy cooed, getting out her phone and taking a slew of photos. We sat on the top of the bales, watching them. "Can they get outside to hunt?"

I nodded. Yes, there's a gap under the eaves that they can get through.

"And they wake up at night?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yes, they keep the mice out of here pretty effectively," I said. "They can be pretty noisy as well, they make a sort of screeching sound."

"You mean they don't go twit twoo?" she asked, looking disappointed.

"No that's tawny owls," I said.

"What's that up there?" she asked, pointing to the balcony area behind us that extended across a third of the barn.

"Oh that's the hayloft," I said. "There's not much up there, except a load of spiders."

Her eyes widened excitedly. "Can we go up?" she asked. "Is it safe?"

"If you want to," I answered, misreading Amy's intentions as usual. "I don't think we'll get a better view up there."

Amy climbed carefully down the other side of the straw bales, then crossed the exposed concrete floor of the barn, before starting to crawl slowly up the ladder to the hay loft. I followed, taking advantage of the opportunity to get a good look at her jodhpur-clad butt as she climbed.

We reached the top and collapsed together on the pile of hay in the centre.

"Mmm", Amy giggled, "I always fancied a roll in the hay with a stable boy!"

She moved to lie on top of me and we began to kiss as my hands roamed over her buttocks.

She bucked her hips, pressing her mound against my crotch. "Are you getting hard?" she teased, feeling my stiffening cock through the fabric between us.

I nodded. "Fuck Amy," I whispered, "you make me so fucking horny."

She began to kiss across my bare chest, which was beginning to flush with my arousal. She ran her fingers lightly through my wispy blond hairs, swirling her tongue around my nipples. Then she kissed towards my abs, past my navel, following my blond treasure trail down as it disappeared under my waistband.

Amy pushed herself up a little, feasting her eyes, sweeping her gaze across me, before placing a delicate kiss on my bulge. She shivered with excitement, as lust surged within her.

She paused, looking up at me from between my legs, teasing me, tantalising me. Her hands poised to undo the button of my jodhpurs, her face centimetres from my crotch. I willed her to take the next step.

Suddenly the door to the barn creaked open and we froze. I pushed Amy off me and we ducked behind the rough wooden parapet that stopped the hay from sliding down onto the floor below. Who was that?

A female voice rang out, "No it's fine, there's no one around." Slightly muffled, but I recognised it immediately.